Cusco, the ancient capital for the Incan empire, is the gateway to the The Sacred Valley of the Incas, and the location of the highest of the three beautiful Inkaterra hotels that we visited. In Cuzco, ​Inkaterra's ​majestic ​La Casona ​cossets its guests in a lovely building that dates back to the earliest days of Spanish colonial rule more than four hundred years ago. Entering the hotel and its inner courtyard is like stepping back in time to a quiet oasis in the city. Put simply, La Casona is one of Cusco’s finest hotels, the first Relais & Châteaux property in Peru, with a staff that cares for their guests in every way. As an example, if visitors have difficulties with Cusco’s altitude (3,400m, or 11,500 feet), the hotel has oxygen available if required.

​The rooms are beautifully decorated in a Spanish colonial style, and the hotel’s high ceilings are from an era long gone. Some of the adobe walls in the hotel must be a meter thick! Besides the richness of Spanish colonial buildings in Cusco, especially in the central historic district, everywhere in Cusco one sees the legacy of the Incas. The incredible Incan stonework was often used by the Spanish as the foundations for their buildings. The durability of the Incan work is impressive – the Inca foundations and walls have withstood powerful earthquakes time after time, when colonial buildings were heavily damaged.

The highlights of our visit to Cusco were our visit to the Incan Temple of the Sun (Koricancha), walking through the narrow streets filled with Incan stone work, and the Colonial Cathedral and the Church of San Blas. We also used the services of guides to take us to the Incan ruin at Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley on the Urubamba River, visited the famous Sunday Market in Pisac, and saw many other sights in the area. Only lack of time kept us from visiting Sacsayhuamán, one of the most famous Incan sites in Cusco. The blend of cultures and history is strong in Cusco, and the ancient and modern seem to exist together everywhere in the city. When visiting Machu Picchu, you simply MUST allow for some extra days to soak up the fantastic sights that can also be seen in Cusco and the Sacred Valley of the Incas!